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Nicola Formichetti leaves Diesel

Nicola Formichetti announced his departure today from Diesel after five years.

The Japanese-Italian designer was the first artistic director, after Rosso decided to stop designing for his own brand. He had been head of ‘global vision’ at Diesel, and the driving force of its digital development – managing styling, marketing, design and communication. His anouncement comes ahead of the labels 40th anniversary next year.

‘The contract expires at the end of December, so there is not that much to say. We’ve had five fantastic years [including early interaction with Formichetti]. It was a fantastic collaboration. I really love very much what was done, and the relationship between us is really special,’ Rosso told WWD.

Nicola explained that his departure was due to personal projects, (his label, Nicopanda, and his magazine, Free) and described his career at Diesel fantastic. ‘I’ve had a good time, but we both decided to end it here. I travel a lot to New York and Tokyo. I want to concentrate on my projects, but there will always be a bond between us.’

According to Rosso, Diesel will not be looking for a successor for the time being. ‘I believe this kind of company can work differently, and not in this same kind of direction. There are many things coming up, special projects. The market is very different now. We want to be modern, I want to explore,’ he explained.

December has turned out to be the month for several creative directors to resign from their posts just before the start of the new year, such as David Koma who quit Mugler and more recently Jonathan Saunders from Diane von Furstenberg.